Endangered Rivers and the Conservation Movement by Tim Palmer

Abstract

technology and culture Book Reviews 973 us very far toward understanding the mixed blessings of technology anywhere. Donald Worster Dr. Worster is Meyerhoff Professor of American Environmental Studies and teaches courses on the history of the environment and the West at Brandeis University. His most recent book is Rivers of Empire: Water, Aridity, and the Growth of the American West (Pantheon, 1985). Endangered Rivers and the Conservation Movement. By Tim Palmer. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1986. Pp. xv + 316; illus­ trations, notes, index. $24.95 (cloth); $12.95 (paper). The history of river conservation has much to tell us about Amer­ ican culture, technology, and the environment. In Endangered Rivers and the Conservation Movement, Tim Palmer explores this history, fo­ cusing in particular on conflicts over the building of dams. The book ranges widely across the American landscape, traveling from Califor­ nia clear across to Maine, with stops in between. Written primarily for the nonspecialist, the narrative details what is at times a rather familiar story. Palmer pauses to consider the battle over Hetch Hetchy and Echo Park, as well as conflicts that failed to draw such nationwide attention—less glamorous but no less important disputes over the waters of Georgia, Idaho, Kentucky, Florida, and elsewhere. For the most part, the book is concerned with the 20th century, although the first three chapters consider, at times, America’s early river history. It is most compelling in its discussion of the period since 1960. Here Palmer locates the origins of a conservation ethic that united a variety of interest groups in the name of river protection. This paralleled some important legislative changes, not the least of which was the passage in 1969 of the National Environmental Policy Act that requires a report on the environmental effects of any federal project likely to harm the natural world. Although the scope and ambition are admirable, on the whole this study is disappointing. The early chapters, in particular, are proble­ matic. They tend to ramble and tack back and forth historically, mak­ ing it difficult for the reader to follow the main line of the narrative. Organization too is often a problem early in the work where Palmer is giving the prelude to the articulation of a conservation ethic in the early 20th century. His handling of 19th-century water use is, in ad­ dition, fraught with misconception. At one point he alludes to riparian rights in the eastern United States during this period, concluding that conflict there was rare (p. 27). In fact, nothing could be further from the truth. Throughout New England’s early history, water resources were a source of tremendous contention. 974 Book Reviews TECHNOLOGY AND CULTURE But the most serious fault is the failure to ask probing, insightful questions. In analyzing the vast number of dams built during the 20th century (and the opposition to these endeavors), Palmer’s analysis makes only brief and fleeting reference to the broader cultural and technological issues at stake. The book would have been far more forceful had he tried to illuminate more carefully the relationship between technology and social process, between technological devel­ opment, people’s responses, and the questions of power and authority. For example, Palmer notes that during the 1960s and beyond, the conservation movement adopted a more rigorous set of analytic tools founded on both science and economics. This approach stands in contrast to the earlier, more philosophical objections lodged against dam building prominent during the early 20th century. Palmer cor­ rectly explains that environmentalists since the late 1960s have sought to meet developers on their own terms (p. 134). But one wonders about the implications of this change. If the environmental ethos that has lately emerged is as thoroughly infused with rationalism and a commitment to economic principles as Palmer believes, one must won­ der about this brand of conservationism. In avoiding such questions, Palmer does not provide the deeper analysis of his subject that would have made this a more useful study. Theodore Steinberg Mr. Steinberg is an Irving and Rose Crown Fellow in the History of American Civilization at Brandeis University. He is currently working on a study of the rise of the Waltham-Lowell...